Apple's annual Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) kicks off this morning in San Francisco (join us at 10 a.m. PT for the live blog). The usually tight-lipped Apple set expectations last week that among the announcements will be something for the next generation of iOS.

New rumors suggest that iOS 5 will receive group messaging along the lines of RIM's BlackBerry Messenger, a notification pop-up window that resembles WebOS, and a list of all your notifications stored in a drop-down menu borrowed from Android.

Notifications could also be visible on the lock screen, if the rumors prove true, and some widgets may live in that drop-down menu mentioned above.

We won't know for sure until the keynote rolls around, so join CNET then, and all day, for the latest iOS, iCloud, and Lion OSX news, analysis, and hands-on impressions.

About the author

Jessica Dolcourt reviews smartphones and cell phones, covers handset news, and pens the monthly column Smartphones Unlocked. A senior editor, she started at CNET in 2006 and spent four years reviewing mobile and desktop software before taking on devices.
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